Mr. W. R. Birt on the Production of Lightning by Rain. 163 



the loudest. Between 2*^ 0"* p.M.and2^15™p.M., according to the 

 concurrent testimony of several witnesses, and preceding the 

 precipitation of the hail nearly half an hour, a discharge struck 

 half-a-dozen houses, being Nos. 17 to 22 in West Street, 

 North Street, Whitechapel, between one-fourth and one-third 

 of a mile south of the writer's residence. The stroke appears 

 to have presented some phaenomena of an interesting and re- 

 markable character. Immediately behind and to the west of 

 the houses in question is situated a large open space of ground, 

 known as a Jews' burying-ground, in which is a piece of water 

 not far from the houses. The gable end of No. 22 faces the 

 west, the fronts of the houses the north, and their backs the 

 south ; the flues of No. 22 form part of the wall at the gable 

 end. At the front and between every alternate house is a 

 metallic spout, for the purpose of carrying off the water from 

 the roof; the water is received from the tiles in a leaden or 

 zinc gutter, which is in metallic communication with the spout; 

 but it does not appear that there is a metallic communication 

 between the gutters from house to house : these metallic spouts 

 are short, not in any case descending so low as the doors ; 

 they are replaced by wooden spouts, which convey the water 

 to the street. It appears that the stroke perforated one of the 

 chimney-pots of No. 22, descending the flue to the roof, which 

 it stripped of a great portion of the tiles*, and then passed to 

 the metallic spout in front, disrupting and tearing away the 

 lower wooden spout, a piece of which, seven feet in length, it 

 rent off and hurled with great violence into the back yard of 

 one of the opposite houses which abutted on the north side of 

 West Street : a great portion of the piece rent from the spout 

 was shivered into small splinters about two inches long. A 

 portion of the stream appears to have been conducted by the 

 gutter communicating with the metallic spout of No. 22 to 

 that betweeen Nos. 20 and 21, down which it proceeded, 

 thrusting the lower wooden spout about three or four inches 

 from the wall, and chipping away portions of the brickwork 

 in its passage through the front wall of No. 21, which it per- 

 forated (the aperture being of a considerable size), and imme- 

 diately passed to the principal wheel of a silk-winding ma- 

 chine. A woman who was attending the machine, and had in 

 her hand at the moment a spindle, received a severe shock, 

 and was hurled by the force across the room. This stream 

 appears to have given off' a lateral stroke, which manifested 

 its effects at the box of the lock of the street door, tearing away 

 the plastering and paper as it passed into the front room, in 



* The western wall of this house has been so shaken by the stroke that 

 it is considered necessary that it should be taken down and rebuilt. 



M2 



